Day 316, Year 8: Dinghy Search Continues
Date: Sunday, September 15, 2013
Weather: And Yet Another Beautiful Day, Just a Tad Cooler
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
The search for a new dinghy continued today. We drove to the West Marine store in Hyannis to see the West Marine RIB-310. This is 10’2” long dinghy and everything about it looks great except for the size of the tubes. They are only 16” and I am desperately holding on to having 17” tubes for stability and dryness. But the price that Mark can get either the PVC or hypalon version of this dinghy for is just too good to pass up. There is a five year warranty on the dinghy and we know that West Marine is absolutely true to its word on warranties. If we have any problem, they will make good on it. But that doesn’t solve the problem of the 16” tubes. Our current dinghy is like a tank. The West Marine dinghy would be more like a 4-wheel drive. In rough conditions, I’d rather have the tank, but a 4-wheel drive will get me through. PVC is a tougher material than hypalon but it just doesn’t stand up to UV rays. Since we will be spending half of each year in the tropics, hypalon is the only material that makes sense, but I could almost buy two PVC’s for the price of one hypalon. Dilemmas, dilemmas. We stopped to see our dinghy on the way home. It definitely has a leak in the forward seam, but it is a slow leak. EJ, the dinghy repair guy, was able to slow that down even more with tube sealant, but if we kept it, we would have to inflate it every day. That would be a bother, but not terrible, but that seam could go at any time and we would be without a dinghy. And replacing a dinghy once we are in the Caribbean would not be cheap. So we know we have to do something. EJ pointed out that West Marine dinghies are made by Zodiac, but then he added that he hates trying to repair Zodiacs. Their prime weakness is their valves, but luckily West Marine does not use the same valves. And according to EJ, there are also a few other things they do differently that make it a better dinghy than the Zodiac. When we got home, we started searching for used dinghies. People are asking outlandish prices for 12 year-old dinghies—older than our AB. So right now, I’m leaning toward the West Marine RIB-310. EJ thinks we can sell the AB for $400-$500, even with the leak, and that would certainly reduce our cost for a new one. Hypalon makes more sense, but PVC is cheaper. Will being sensible or being cheap win the day? We shall see. And if we do go with the West Marine dinghy and it works out, we could become a West Marine testimonial!
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| 130915 Day 316 Cape Cod, USA–Dinghy Search Continues |
